BREAKING MY LOVER

Long live the Queen.

Control. It’s what’s I’ve been missing in my life ever since I got stuck in this time loop. Spike, Princess Celestia, my friends, even the Elements of Harmony. One by one they all failed me or turned against me when it really mattered. If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.

Chrysalis’ invasion plan was a blitzkrieg, a display of overwhelming force to sow terror and chaos through the city. So many unnecessary deaths, no wonder the Elements decided to wipe out the whole sordid mess. I can do better. Every problem has a solution, I just had to start thinking outside the box.

Granted, ‘defeat the current changeling queen in single combat and supplant her as the new one’ is pretty far outside of the box. The old queen was a monster, though. I refuse to turn out the same way. There’s a balance, there has to be. A compromise that will let ponies live together in peace with my swarm. I’ll fight for it, and if I have to impose it by force then so be it. It’s for their own good.

I hope it won’t come to that though. I’ve already sacrificed so much just to get this far. My contingent of changelings disguised as royal guards and I stop in front of the door that I hope has the answer I need behind it. We stop in front of Luna’s bedroom. I hadn’t anticipated how hungry I would be after my ascension, how badly my new body would crave love. Why wouldn’t I go to the pony I’ve fallen madly in love with?

I don’t know when it happened, exactly. After the Elements of Harmony failed to defeat Chrysalis this is where I ended up on the very next loop, crying into her chest and moaning about how hopeless everything seemed. She didn’t understand, how could she when she’s outside the time loop I’m in? But she comforted me anyway, whispering reassurances into my ear and when she grew a little bolder nibbling around the edges of it. Loop after loop I threw myself into her bed, drowning my disappointment in hedonism and sexual experimentation, learning from the puzzled but willing demigoddess.

For her, I’m hoping that this will be the last first time she lies with me. With a little bedroom diplomacy I know I can convince her that we can have peace if we rule together, a symbol of a brand new kingdom bound together by the love between pony and changeling royalty. I’ve planned it all out. With a thought to my guards ordering them to remain here and keep anypony from entering, I push the door open and step into the inky darkness beyond. Even though I can’t see anything my hooves know the way to her bedside. Three short steps, one longer one, and then I push off the ground in a flying leap that drops me right on top of the lump in her covers. Luna startles awake, and I feel her shift and kick under me. “Wha?”

“Don’t worry Luna. It’s me, Twilight,” I say, burrowing my muzzle beneath the covers and searching until it pokes into her chin. I feel her let out a sleepy little yawn, and I take the opportunity to dart my own tongue past her lips. If I could see her eyes, I’m pretty sure they’d be going wide. The first tingle of love I can taste is confused and hesitant but the very fact that it’s there at all makes my heart soar.

Luna coughs and pulls her head back. “Twilight, what is the meaning of this?” she asks. The lights come up a bit so we can look at each other. Luna is rubbing the crust from her eyes, and she has a serious case of bedmane. She’s beautiful.

“Princess, I know this must feel sudden, but I love you. I’ve loved you for years and years now, and I want to be with you,” I say. When I started this even thinking about a confession like that would have given me panicky fits, but I’ve told her that so many times now I’m numb to the fear. Knowing how she responds helps too.

“You haven’t known me for years and years, Twilight,” she says. Well, not from her perspective. “I’m most flattered, but I need a little time to process this. Perhaps later this evening we can...” she trails off as I start laying a trail of gentle kisses down the side of her neck. I’ve made an extensive map in my head of all the spots where she’s most sensitive, and I know that a series of coordinated strikes will have a profound effect.

“We have as long as we need, Luna,” I say. I can drop her title now that we’re equals in power and authority. “We have forever to talk. Before we do though, I need you. I need you right this second.” Before she can protest I’ve slipped under the covers with her. I wrap my forelegs around her barrel and press a knee in between her hind legs, feeling the heat there and breathlessly anticipating how soaking wet it will be soon. Her own hind legs squeeze together around mine, tangling us together. I wish I could grow to my new full size instead of pretending I’m still just a little unicorn, prove that I can love her as an equal, but I need her to warm up to the idea first. My knee grinding into her is certainly warming something up, and I feel a little patch of moisture starting to seep into my coat.

“Mmmm...” says Luna, arching her back into the pleasure, “who are you and what have you done with that sexy mare whom my sister teaches?”

Something’s... off. Usually I’m getting pretty excited myself at this point, and while I’m enjoying the steady stream of affection Luna’s giving off it’s not quite the same sort of thrill I’m used to. I push even harder, meeting her mouth with mine and gripping her head in my magic to pull it roughly into the kiss. Luna snorts at the new pressure and tries to turn her head away, but I follow her. I won’t let her escape. Luna’s foreleg comes up to my chest and gives me a hard shove. Despite my best efforts I’m forced to sit up on her belly. Looking down, I can see befuddlement in the way she turns her face away and regards me with just one eye. “I’m sorry, Luna,” I say. I don’t understand my own actions. I’ve never done something like that to her, but a little voice in the back of my head is whispering that I liked it. That she should like it too and if she doesn’t, well, that’s not important.

“This is a mistake, Twilight. I was caught up in it for a moment, but we shouldn’t be doing this,” says Luna. She shifts her hips away and I'm once more adrift in an ocean of cool air, the welcoming heat of her body receding into the distance. Those few centimeters that have appeared between us feel like miles.

“No!” I cry out. “Listen, I’m sorry I got a bit forceful there, I was just excited. Let me make it up to you. I’ll prove I can be gentle, and if you tell me to stop again I will.” When she relaxes a little, I stroke a hoof through her mane and cuddle up against her. “I want this to be special for you. Luna. I wouldn’t ever do anything to hurt you, I swear.”

I let her breathing slow down a bit as I hold her. I can’t screw up this time. I have to make her understand my plan before she gets up to raise the moon. It was only a stroke of good luck that let me beat Chrysalis during this loop, I can’t throw it away lightly. Once Luna is a bit calmer I move up her body and kiss the tip of her horn. I feel a little guilty about what’s coming next, but I can’t have her panicking before I’ve had a chance to explain myself to her.

When Luna lets out a happy moan at what I’m doing with her horn, I take a little more of it into my mouth. She darts her own tongue out and glides it up my belly as far as she can reach. The heat and pressure running against the nap of my coat should be sending me over her moon, but while I can’t say it’s unpleasant it isn’t really doing anything for my arousal either. I lower my mouth closer to the base, finding the little groove that spirals all the way up and down its length. I trace it with my tongue, slathering it in spittle as I go. With a little bit of extra effort, new parts of my body kick into action and add a few new chemical agents into the mix. I’m lucky Luna doesn’t have the presence of mind right now to notice that my tongue is a whole lot more dexterous than anypony’s should be. Once I’ve thoroughly soaked her, I squeeze my lips tight around her horn’s base and suck as I pull my way back up it, finishing off with a little *pop* as Luna’s eyes go wide. I stare deeply into them. “Did you like that?” I ask her.

Luna smiles back, but a moment later her expression turns to one of confusion and then to a frown. She brings a hoof up and taps her horn experimentally. “It felt good at first, but now it’s gone numb for some reason.” Oh good, I was worried the anesthetizing agent wouldn’t work.

“That’s my fault, sorry,” I say. “It’s only temporary though. I need to show you something, and I need for you not to overreact.” The poorly lit room is suddenly bright with green light cast off by the flames as I drop my disguise and grow to my full majesty, pressing Luna deeper into the mattress below me. Some detached part of my mind finds it absolutely fascinating that mass isn’t conserved between transformations, but files it away as irrelevant for the time being.

I open my mouth to explain myself to Luna, but her scream is faster. “Luna-” I try to say over her but I’m interrupted when her foreleg lashes out and hits me. Even pinned down and without leverage it knocks the wind out of me. She’s writhing about trying to escape and paying no heed to what I’m saying, but I try again anyway. “Luna, it’s still me. It’s still Twilight, and I still love you. I chose this. I did it for Equestria, and for us.”

“Get off of me!” Luna shouts in the Royal Canterlot Voice. She tries to channel her magic through her disabled horn, but can’t even manage a spark.

“Just stop yelling at me and let me explain!” I shout back. Why does she have to be so difficult about this? I feel my temper rising at her insolence. Doesn’t she know I gave up everything to make this work? “We can rule together now that Chrysalis and Celestia are out of the picture.”

“Celestia? What did you do to her? What did you do?”

“Nothing! It was the changelings, not me. I’m trying to stop this invasion from killing us all.” I try to get through to her, but I’m not having any luck. This isn’t how this was supposed to happen.

“Guards! Somepony! Anypony! Help me!” cries Luna. Luckily the soundproofing on this room is pretty strong, and the guards outside are mine rather than hers. Still, she’s wriggling out from where I’ve trapped her. I can’t let her get away or I’ll have to start a whole other loop from scratch.

“I told you to SHUT! UP!” I yell into her face. I open my mouth and bite down into the flesh at the base of her neck. As my sharp teeth penetrate her flesh I can feel her heart pounding through my jaw, and I get a little lightheaded at the brand new feeling of spurt after spurt of venom being pumped into her body through my hollow fangs. A minute later I run dry of toxins and pull back from her, looking down in horror at the ring of broken skin I’ve left behind. “Luna... Look what you made me do,” I say. Even now her struggles are slowing down as the mind-altering poison makes its way through her body.

“Oh... my head... What’s... what’s happening?” asks Luna, her voice slowly fading.

“Luna, I promise it was just this one time. Just so you’d stop screaming. I just wanted you to see how much I love you,” I say. I always knew this was a possibility, but I didn’t want it to come to this. I really didn’t.

So why is part of me so very excited that it has?

Luna screws up her face with all the hate and disgust she can muster. “I. Will never. Love you.” Then she settles her head down on the pillow, her eyes glazed and half closed.

“Luna? It... it doesn’t hurt does it? I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, my queen. I feel wonderful,” says Luna, her voice oddly hollow under the venom’s influence. “Did I yell at you a moment ago? I can’t remember why, but I think that I did. Please forgive me.”

“There’s nothing to forgive. I should go,” I say, getting off the bed and preparing to retreat to the throne room. I’ll come back when the venom’s worn off and try again.

“Don’t leave me!” Luna rolls over as I try to get up and clings to my side pulling me back towards the bed. “I love you, my queen. I need you.”

I shudder as the torrent of love that’s pouring out of her, so much that it almost hurts to take all at once. I’m not gullible enough to believe any of what she’s saying is genuine, of course. I remember what it felt like being under that stuff’s influence. Maybe, though... Maybe I could pretend to believe it. Just for a little while. The harm’s already been done, and if you think about it I owe it to her to stay until it wears off. “OK, I won’t go.”

She’s so pathetically grateful that there are tears welling up in her eyes as I let her pull me back under the covers with her. I lay there on my back as she curls herself up into a tight little ball and rests her head on my chest, utterly content. This is so, so close to being exactly what I wanted in the first place. It must be because I’m larger than she is now or the way she’s curled up, but she seems diminished and fragile as she falls back into a deep sleep. I wait a quarter of an hour until I’m sure she’s out cold before I slip out of bed and gently lower her head onto a pillow. I take a few steps towards the door, but then stop and turn back.

I close my eyes and plant a gentle kiss on my beloved’s cheek. I’ll try again tomorrow, when her system’s cleared the venom. I’ll make her understand that I love her, that everything I’ve done has been for her and for Equestria. In the end, I’m sure she’ll come to realize that I’m doing the right thing.

Leaving my guards inside the room with a command to notify me when Luna begins to stir again, I reassert my old shape and walk through the halls, alone and unnoticed. I can feel the mass of my swarm getting closer and closer to the palace pacifying and capturing ponies as they go. I can only hope that showing them mercy will buy me time to pacify the Elements. The saboteurs disguised as officers of the guard up and down the chain of command are doing a wonderful job of undermining any attempts at organizing a counter-attack. Entire units seem to be just melting away without more than a token fight, surely deserting when faced with what they have to realize is a vastly superior force.

I unseal the passage to the throne room and step inside. It’s going to need some serious renovation to erase the scars of the fight I had with Chrysalis. Speak of the devil, the hateful thing herself is still chained up to the throne, still looking just like I used to. I transform back into my full glory while she watches, just to rub it in that she can’t anymore. There’s a little bit of blood spattered around her, she probably coughed it up after I broke her rib. Doesn’t look like enough to be dangerous though. Good, I want her to stick around for a long, long time.

“Have a good time with your new nighttime plaything, my queen?” she asks. Unbelievable. Even now she’s still full of herself. It seems I couldn’t quite drain away the last of her free will.

“She is not a plaything,” I say. “She’s a pony who happens to be very important to me. We had a little misunderstanding, but in time I know she’ll come around.”

“Well goodie for you. And my invasion?”

“It isn’t yours anymore. Your plan was going to doom everyone, pony and changeling alike. So I fixed it and soon we’ll be able to share the city between us.”

“You actually believe that. Precious. Well when you understand being a changeling queen really means, I’ll be ready to advise or assist in any way I can. You may be able to benefits from this loyal servant’s unique experience.”

“I doubt it,” I say. Deciding there’s no point discussing this with her further I reach out across the swarm looking for an update. The sacking of the train was successful, and all five of my friends were captured successfully, though not without casualties among my soldiers. I’m really upset that the girls would do that; I was trying to be merciful and they took advantage of that... weakness... to hurt me. I shake it off, though. I’m sure once they understand the situation they’ll come around and agree to help me destroy the Elements of Harmony.

Putting that aside, I reach out through the city and my breath catches in my throat when I find that a pair of drones are returning from a mission I nearly forgot I had sent them out on.

Chrysalis notices. “Something the matter, Queen Sparkle?”

I nod. “My parents just got here.”